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Watercolor painting entitled "Military Plaza and Main Plaza, San Antonio" by Sam Chamberlain. Executed by Samuel Emery Chamberlain (1829-1908), soldier, adventurer, and artist, who fought in the U.S.--Mexican War with the First United States Dragoons under the command of Gen. John E. Wool (for detailed biography see William H. Goetzmann, "Sam Chamberlain's Mexican War: The San Jacinto Museum of History Paintings"). This painting was included in a scrapbook album purchased by the San Jacinto Museum of History from the Old Print Shop in New York in 1956, shortly after Life magazine published excerpts of Chamberlain's wartime journal, entitled "My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue". The title to the scrapbook reads: This Scrapbook began in 1867/Finished March 12th 1905 donated/to Chamberlain and Lyman Brown/and/Their Children, Children, Children's/by/its maker S.E. Chamberlain in his 77th year". The album was apparently sold by Lyman and Chamberlain Brown to a Mr. R.E. Townsend of Annapolis, Maryland, from whom the Old Print Shop and then the San Jacinto Museum of History acquired it. The album contained 140 paintings, most watercolor and graphite, which represent a combination of field sketches, drafts, and finished drawings. Some of the watercolors seem to be originals, executed by Chamberlain in Mexico, while others are likely copies of sketches, redrawn "recollections" or conjectural scenes, possibly drawn from veterans' tales or inspired by popular images from the flood of newspaper, magazine, and book accounts of the war. Around the edges of the scrapbook, the paintings were framed with clippings from the illustrated magazines of the day, such as Harpers Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, and even some prints from books about the Mexican and Civil wars. Also included on the album's title page is a photograph of a seated Chamberlain in his later years at his home, Maple Hall. Two smaller collections of Chamberlain watercolors are housed in the West Point Museum and the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University.